Trump Pulled a Full Shedeur Sanders on Goldman’s Tariff Math… And the Market Delivered Its Verdict

If you watched even five minutes of preseason football this weekend, you saw it… Shedeur Sanders’ NFL debut. The rookie QB, son of Coach Prime, and self-anointed “legendary” player finally took real snaps. And I gotta say… the kid didn’t suck. Quick release, accurate throws, didn’t look like he was one sack away from meeting the Lord. Pretty damn solid for a guy who went from “potential top-5 pick” hype to being drafted in the fifth round (aka the NFL’s “you’re good, but let’s not get carried away” purgatory).

Now… about that pregame entrance. My man rolled up with his buddy carrying a literal staff and a boombox blasting himself rapping. I’ve seen less cringe in a middle school talent show. NFL vets were 100% watching that thinking, “Great, we drafted a TikTok channel.”

Anyways, the game ends. Shedeur’s feeling himself. Then (boom) he’s in front of cameras confronting a local Browns reporter like, “Yo, why you always talk bad about me?” Which, of course, just poured gasoline on the takes factory (the Colin Cowherds of the world live for this stuff). Solid debut, sure, but you’re not exactly Tom Brady out here dropping pearls of wisdom, bro. (Maybe try a little humility for a change?).

And that brings us neatly to Donald Trump vs. Goldman Sachs… because the parallel is pretty similar. Late yesterday, Trump hopped on Truth Social and decided Goldman CEO David Solomon needed a new LinkedIn headline: “I think that David should go out and get himself a new Economist or, maybe, he ought to just focus on being a DJ, and not bother running a major Financial Institution.”

Now to be clear, this is the same David Solomon whose day job involves, you know… running one of the most powerful banks on the planet. Moving billions through global markets. Negotiating with Fortune 500 CEOs. Advising governments on debt offerings. And apparently also… jumping on stage to blast Chainsmokers remixes to a crowd of college kids who think “diversification” is mixing White Claw flavors.

(Source: Bloomberg)

And as far as the “new Economist” jab? That’s Trump going straight for Jan Hatzius… Goldman’s chief since 2011, the guy who called the 2008 mortgage crisis before it detonated and who drops research that can move billions with a single PDF (seriously). Well, Hatzius just dropped his latest, and the gist is this: U.S. consumers have already swallowed 22% of Trump’s tariffs, and if the pattern from past tariff waves holds, that cut could balloon to 67% by October. In other words: “Hey Don, those ‘winning’ tariffs? They’re about to start sucker-punching people in the checkout line.”

Here’s what that actually means in the real world. When a new tariff hits (say, on electronics or produce) importers and manufacturers don’t always jack prices right away. Why, you ask? Sometimes they’re locked into contracts with fixed prices. Sometimes they’ll eat the cost for a few months because they don’t want to scare customers away or lose market share. And sometimes they’ll disguise it with smaller packages, worse ingredients, or “new recipe” labels that really mean “we took half the good stuff out.” (Yes, I’m looking at you, Doritos bag that’s now mostly air.)

All that to say… Hatzius’ 67% isn’t a random guess. He’s looking at prior tariff cycles and saying, “Every time we do this throughout history, the cost starts with the importer but ends with the shopper… it’s just a matter of months before the math works its way down the chain.” Once those early protections wear off, the importer pushes the bill to the wholesaler, who passes it to the retailer, and the retailer… well, they hand it to you with a smile and a higher price tag (I like to call it the economical circle of life).

Trump’s rebuttal is that tariffs haven’t caused inflation or “any other problems for America, other than massive amounts of CASH pouring into our Treasury’s coffers.” And, to be fair, he’s not totally wrong in the short term. Tariff revenue in July hit $28 billion, and foreign exporters do sometimes cut their own prices at the start to keep U.S. buyers from dumping them. That’s why, early on, you can see high tariff revenue without much sticker shock at the grocery store.

The catch (and where Hatzius is hanging his hat) is that this isn’t sustainable. Once exporters stop discounting and contracts roll over, the price hikes filter through. That’s when your iPhone, your Nikes, and your bag of coffee beans suddenly cost more… not in a way that makes headlines, but in the slow, creeping way you only notice when you’re like, “Wait, when did this cost $2 more?”

So, who’s right? Short term, Trump’s argument holds up. Long term, Goldman’s math usually wins. Tariffs are basically a stealth tax… invisible at first, then slowly oozing into everything you buy.

The funniest part to me is that Trump told one of the most powerful CEOs on the planet to quit his day job and go full-time Chainsmokers tribute act… and Goldman’s stock still popped 3%. So yeah, if this was supposed to be some kind of stock hit job, Goldman just danced right past him… probably to a David Solomon remix.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.